In reflecting on the day today, I struggle to find words to describe the things that we witnessed and the feelings that I felt. We read the following quote at the ceremony, closing our time at Auschwitz.
As we walked into Auschwitz 1 today, the names of victims echoed from the speakers above us- an eerie walk where I found myself anticipating the pain of what we would witness ahead. As I listened to the names, I tried to soak them in, giving each a moment in my mind. We must remember.
As we continued through the different buildings, we bore witness to people, men, women, children, elderly, who were brought to this location, stripped of all their belongings and in most cases brutally killed or succumbed to the conditions. Each step we took my chest tightened a bit more, yet I still felt a sense of numbness like my body was not letting me feel fully- stopping me from processing what was in front of us. We eventually came to a room where videos played of life before the war. Some were home videos. Videos where mothers/fathers/grandparents were on the other end of the recorder. One video, from 1938 in the Netherlands, showed a young girl playing in a body of water blowing kisses to the loved one behind the camera. Loved ones videoing memories that I can imagine they hoped to pass on to future generations, memories they didn’t want to forget. These now serve as evidence of life, of the normalcy of life, of the joy, love, passion, and humanness that existed before a time of destruction, inhumane acts, and extermination. We must remember.
Another video played just as we were about to leave the room that broke through the wall my body had been putting up around my emotions. The video was of a large group of young children singing a song in unison. As an educator, I have come to add children singing to the top of my list of favorite sounds. In this room, I broke hearing these sweet voices and thinking about the cruel fate that would come in a few short years following this video. We must remember.
The faces, the voices, the names, the personal belongings, the facts- these things will remain with me. I end my post with the final quote I photographed leaving Auschwitz 1.
I vow to keep learning forever and to spread that learning to my students and staff who are under my leadership in hopes that by remembering we prevent something like this from happening again.
Quincy Gildea
